This weeks question for ASK KEN was: “What can we learn from the NBA championship, the Stanley Cup finals and the U.S. Open that applies to organizational, team and personal development?” Please take a moment to read my answer below and share any additional insights or questions you may have.

Top Ten Development Tips Learned from the Pros What follows is a list of specific lessons I learned while observing the recent championships:

Look for a way to create teamwork that complements individual talents

Have a plan, stay the course, adjust as necessary – Having a vision of success is a powerful way to propel top performance

Believe in yourself and don’t be afraid to make mistakes

Don’t be afraid to shoot, stay aggressive and capitalize on your strengths

Don’t forget to breath and play to win under pressure

If you win focus on “we,” if you loose focus on “me.” I believe the implication of this is to be reflective on what worked, what didn’t and what you personally can do to improve

It isn’t how you start – it is how you finish. Persistence is critical to finishing on top

Coaching is an important tool to help performers capitalize on their strengths, address their improvement opportunities, focus during the game, and focus on the game

There are no shortcuts to victory. Practice is essential and there is no substitute for experience

Great players make other players better by making great plays, recognizing contributions of others and encouraging others to do their part and great owners make smart investments in people

Your Thoughts?

What are the most important factors to engaging employees from your perspective?

What have you done to keep yourself engaged at work and/or engage others?

Next Week’s Question Questions are a powerful way to facilitate learning

I recently saw a wonderful movie “We Are Marshall” with bonus footage of interviews with some of the greatest coaches in modern history. The omnipresent theme was that it is not who or if there would be mistakes, failures, and losses, but When those occur, it is the overcoming, adapting, and moving on from adversity that leads to success.

Thanks so much for sharing these absoluty great — awsome tips. I will post it in my cubicle and places to be reminded and will be aware of doing them. My question is how important is the role of “politics” in sports because “office politics” importance and impact is great in the office and organizational settings. You cannot down play the game of office politics. If you do you lose no matter how much and to what degree you comply with all the above (10 tips).

Sharing, sharing, sharing. There is no other way to engage others (employees included) from your perspective, than to share it at the “wisdom level” (emotional intelligence level) of the co-sharer (not a silent/inactive receiver). Sharing encompass building trust, clear facts, simple message, and knowledge about ‘how to do or fix’. Some are afraid on sharing, but a leader is confident and appreciates that the 2010s are team-times (the receiver/co-sharer becomes a participant).

You engage employees by assigning them work with built in reward so they work harder than they must. This may include developmental projects, exposure to the big boys, special training, time off or monetary awards, or whatever motivates the employee.

Great tips and article. I would like to add one thought. We have seen recent coach/athlete stories where the coach was less than honest in his management style with a win at all costs attitude. Integrity plays an important role in the mindset of the whole team. True leadership is having the integrity to make your actions consistent with your standards of right and wrong. The example to the team will be priceless.

Time frame – Five year mission (mission sounds better than goal) Made up of little goals called voyages

How to reconize we are doing right – Seek out new life & new life forms

How to get there – ‘To boldly go”

Where – “where no man has gone before” Ok the ‘no man’ is dated but “no one has gone before” speaks of reaching out, doing new things – not replicating yesterday over and over again. Its not Bill Murry’s “Ground Hog Day” – some work can feel like that.

To me the worst thing that happens is we do not know who we work with. Job interviews list qualifications but after a year or two all that is lost. After 10 years the resume’ does not look the same. How often do leaders go back and update their employee’s resume’ People grow whith new skills while other skills fade. Its hard to assemble a team without knowing what skills are present.

Imagine running the Enterprise crew without a good knowledge of who the maint techs, doctors, Cheif engineer, science officer, helmsman, etc are !

Lastly – keep people informed. Not only does it purne the “grape vine” of miss information, but helps pull talents and interests from the group. As one guy told the VP – “When you look down the ranks you see all our bright faces looking up. The view is often not so pleasent when we look up” (meaning seeing only the backside of managers 99% of the time.)

As for me – keep one ear to the ground for trends. Try new things. It looks good to have a three year old Twitter or Gmail account. A four year old GovLoop account can add an aura of authority. Play. Play with new gadgets. Its what kids do. They whip up on most adults.

Great advice. When doing leadership development work with my clients I always prefer to make models and advice tangible and relevant. This is a great method, short and sweet, and touches on many other areas of team performance and leadership development.